


Second Guesses

by rae_marie



Series: The War Master New Adventures [1]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Gen, can't wait for the next war master set, eerie and atmospheric, lots of riddles and logic puzzles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 08:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16783243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rae_marie/pseuds/rae_marie
Summary: Jara wants to escape the Daleks more than anything....and then a mysterious voice tells him how he can....





	Second Guesses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thetransgirlwhoneverwas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thetransgirlwhoneverwas/gifts), [Gaz042](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gaz042/gifts).



> For my two friends who were eager to hear a scary Master story.

Jara awoke in a cell. He looked around; it was dark, and there was a funny little speaker in the corner. So the Dalek spies had got him at last.

He sighed and pushed himself to a sitting position. So much for his mission. He looked around for means of escape, and there were none. Surprisingly, when he looked for a guard, there was none either. Perhaps the Daleks were getting a little overconfident.

He crawled up to the odd speaker in the corner and tapped it. Didn't seem to be anything suspicious. In fact, it could be how the Dalek agents communicated with their prisoners. He wouldn't be surprised if they taunted him through it.

Suddenly it crackled on. He pulled back a little, then leaned forward. He thought he could hear a high-pitched screech through it, and a cry of someone in pain, and then a thump.

'H....hello....?' he said.

There was silence for a moment, and then a voice came through.

'Hello!' it said. 'You must be young Mr Jara.'

The voice sounded kindly enough; not like a Dalek agent at all; despite all their genetic engineering, even _they_ couldn't help but sound spiteful.

'Who....who are you?' Jara called.

'Oh....just someone who wants to help you escape. I don't know if you heard, but I took out the captain of the agents' ship just now, and I'm running their flight controls manually.'

'Escape?' It had to be a trick. 'I....I can't trust you. This is a test; you'll only turn me in again.'

The man laughed. 'Oh....I highly doubt _that_. The Daleks _loathe_ me, Jara. As I know they do you. Would you rather stay there, awaiting your terrible fate at the hands of the Daleks - not that they _have_ hands, mind you - or would you rather take your chances at your only hope of escaping them?'

'Won't the others hear me walking along the corridor?'

'Thankfully for you, it's soundproof. I set up a distraction; they shouldn't be down there for a while. But you'll have to act fast.'

Jara thought for a minute. Honestly, he really _didn't_ sound like a Dalek agent; as he'd thought before, he actually sounded rather welcoming and kindly. He turned back to the speaker.

'All right. I'll try. What do I have to do?'

There was a creaking sound behind him, and he turned. The door had swung open. He stared.

'I managed to override the security controls for your door, but that's the most I can do right now, I'm afraid. You're going to have to do the next part by yourself. But run now, or the defense mechanisms will trigger.'

As he spoke, Jara felt the floor shifting. He ran for the door and leaped out, and behind him, he heard the wall hit the ceiling. He lay, panting, on the floor.

'Close call, Jara! Now. Onto the next door.'

'What do you mean?' Jara stood up and looked at the other speaker in the ceiling.

'There is a puzzle ahead that you have to solve to carry on down the corridor; if you don't, a self-destruct weapon will deploy.'

'Oh.'

'Yes. Why don't you start looking for it?'

Jara surveyed the corridor, and soon caught sight of a door up ahead. He walked forward and pushed it.

A hologram instantly lit up in front of his face and he pulled back.

_Do not attempt to cross the floor,_

it said.

_All circular tiles will detonate upon impact._

Jara looked at the floor and groaned. It was all covered in circles.

'Do you see it now?' the Master said. 'I can, on the security camera.'

'Yes, and I can't get across it; it'll explode.'

'How so?'

'It says all circular tiles will detonate upon impact.'

The man started to laugh.

'It isn't funny!' Jara scowled at the camera in the corner.

'Oh, but it _is!_ Look at the floor again, and tell me what you see.'

Jara looked. Lots of small black circles, and....

Oh.

'Well?'

'They're ovals!' He laughed. 'They're actually _ovals!_ There are very few circles in here at all!'

' _Excellent!_ '

Jara cautiously stepped across the floor, being careful to avoid the extra circles scattered around. He reached the other side and breathed a sigh of relief.

'Well done,' the man said. 'Now keep going forward, before time runs out.'

Jara made his way further down the hall.

'I hope this is worth it,' he said.

'Of _course_ it is! Why wouldn't it be?'

'I don't know....I just have a bad feeling about this.'

'Well try to ignore it. You want to be free of the Daleks, don't you?'

'Yes....but you haven't even told me your name yet. Who are you, anyway?'

'Ah! I am the _Master_ , and I am one of the Daleks' most feared enemies.'

'I see. "The Master"? I never heard of you before.' The Master chuckled.

'Oh....well....maybe there's a good reason for that. Anyhow! I hear _you_ are rather infamous as well, eh? Some sort of ex-temporal anomaly?'

'Yeah; my life doesn't really make a lot of sense, honestly. It tends to warp my mind every time I try to think of my childhood, so I don't really know how to explain it.'

'Mm. Perhaps that's why the Daleks so badly want to keep you prisoner! Something related to the Time War.'

'Maybe. I don't really know.' He stopped in front of a door with a computer screen attached.

'What does it say?' the Master asked.

'It says, "If a Venusian is born on Venus, and lives on Pluto, why can't he be buried on Venus?" Doesn't make much sense; that's not how Venusian politics work.'

'Ah, but is it a straightforward question?' the Master asked. Jara squinted at the screen. ' _Think_ , Jara; if it doesn't make sense, it must not be a true question of Venusian legality.'

Jara studied the question for a minute, rolling the concept around in his mind. Then it struck him.

'It's a riddle!' he said. He studied it again, then started typing.

'Careful, now! What are you typing?'

'He can't be buried because he's alive.'

'Very good! Though I suppose he could still be buried, even if he _was_ alive, but I doubt that's what the question wants to know.'

Jara laughed nervously and pushed the _enter_ button. There was a pause, and then the door slid open. He let out his breath and walked through.

He hadn't gotten three metres when a door slammed down in front of him.

 _Question will be answered in ninety rels or the door will detonate_ , came a voice. Jara winced and looked at the screen.

'What does it say?' the Master asked.

'It doesn't make any sense!' he called back. 'It says "Close your eyes and imagine you're in a locked spaceship. How do you get out?" Well I'm _trying_ to get out - by solving these blasted riddles!'

'Jara - quick!' The Master's voice was urgent. 'Type in "Open your eyes"! It's the only answer that makes sense!'

'What? How? That _doesn't_ make sense!'

'Just _do it! Now! Obey me!_ '

Jara froze.

' _JARA! TYPE IT IN!_ '

Jara slammed the keys into the correct words and hit _enter_.

The door slid open.

' _Detonation sequence terminated_ ,' came the voice. ' _Please proceed forward_.'

Jara let out a breath, and heard the Master do the same. 'I don't understand how it worked.'

'It's simple enough,' the Master said. 'If you close your eyes and imagine you're in a spaceship, the only way you can get out is by _stopping_ imagining the spaceship. Do they only teach you logic in those military schools and no imagination?'

'They only teach logic,' Jara said, a little ashamed. He'd always wanted to _be_ imaginitive, but no one had ever shown him how.

'That's a pity,' the Master said. Jara nodded.

'I think so as well. I want to think outside the box, but I don't know how.'

'Well perhaps I can show you once you get out of that ship.'

Jara came to a fork in the corridor and looked up at one of the speakers.

'Master, what way do I turn?'

'Turn right,' he said. 'The left one seems to lead to a pit of carnivorous flowers.'

Jara shuddered and turned right. 

*****

A while later, there had been no intercom conversation with the Master, and Jara was getting worried. He stopped in front of another screen and read,

_What occurs once in a minute, twice in_

_a moment, and never in a thousand years?_

He groaned. This made no sense, even to his Time War-altered mind. He read it again, and then looked up at the nearby speaker.

'Master, can you make any sense of this?'

Silence.

'Master....?'

Still no reply.

Jara sighed, and looked at the screen again. Perhaps it was a trick question, like before, and he had to try being imaginative, however that worked. He scanned the words and looked for differences in them.

 _Wait...._ he squinted. _Perhaps the difference isn't in the_ concepts _, but in the actual_ words. He studied them again.

 _Oh!_ He grinned. _It's the letter 'm'!_

He typed in the answer, and another door slid open.

'Good work, Jara!' came the Master's voice. Jara looked up.

'Why - where _were_ you?' He was a little annoyed.

'I had to run down to where you'll be exiting the ship, then I had to break into the communications system remotely. Keep going; you're almost there.'

Jara breathed a sigh of relief and started down this new corridor. After a while of silence on both ends, he called,

'Are you gonna turn on me and hand me over directly to the Daleks? Have you been lying to me?'

'Of _course_ I haven't been lying!' came the voice, with a laugh. 'And I would _never_ turn you over to the Daleks; as I stated before, we abhor each other. It's personal. I am here to help you escape them, Jara. Trust me.'

For some reason, Jara felt as if he _could_.

*****

He had walked in silence for about two minutes, when there was a rolling sound down the corridor in front of him. He stopped.

' _Master - I think something's in here with me_ ,' he whispered as loudly as he could. 

' _Shh - keep absolutely quiet_....'

Jara pressed himself up against the wall and waited. The rolling sound got nearer and nearer, and then a security bot came into view. It rolled up and stopped in front of Jara. 

'You are an escaped prisoner and must be executed,' came its metallic voice. 'If you lie you will be disintegrated. If you tell the truth you will be exterminated.'

'No no _no...._ ' Jara cringed against the wall more.

'Jara, shut up and listen to me,' the Master said. 'Tell it you'll be disintegrated.'

'Wh....what?' Jara looked up at the speaker. 'I don't want to die.'

'It won't kill you, if my guess is correct. And anyhow. Even if it doesn't work, at least it's a less agonising death than extermination.'

Jara took a deep, shuddering breath and looked at the bot.

'I will be disintegrated,' he said, his voice firm.

The bot stayed silent for a moment, then something inside it whirred.

 _Oh, no, here it comes_.... Jara thought, but just then the bot made a garbled sound and started zipping around in circles.

'I cannot compute....information overload....my systems are malfunctioning....'

Jara stared in shock as the bot spun out of its tight circle and smashed into a wall.

' _Superb!_ ' the Master shouted.

'What just happened?' Jara's head was spinning.

'The statement confused it! If you were telling the truth that you would be disintegrated, the bot would've had to exterminate you, which would've made your statement a lie - which you were supposed to be disintegrated for. But that would've made it a truth, and so on, forever in circles. The bot's programming doesn't quite account for intelligent responses like that.'

Jara let out a sigh. 'Thank you so much. I don't know how you can come up with that sort of solution so quickly.'

'Oh, believe me, Jara; I know a lot about truth and lies. But listen. There is only one more door you have to get through. Go to it, and I'll be there on the other side.'

Jara straightened, pushing himself shakily away from the wall. He continued to the next door and read what was on the screen attached to it.

_What weighs more: a pound of dirt, or a pound of Agrossi feathers?_

Well at least _that_ one was simple. He typed in, 'They both weigh the same,' and hit _enter_.

The door swung open, and up ahead, he could see a corridor ending in a room with a quiet blue glow emanating from it.

He ran.

The corridor walls were a blur as he pelted towards the open doorway. He flung himself through it, then immediately found himself jerked to a halt and held fast.

'Wh....what....?' He tried to move, but couldn't struggle out of the invisible thing that was holding him.

'And that's where your mad dash for freedom stops, I'm afraid.'

A tall, white-haired man with penetrating, icy blue eyes stepped out of the shadows. Jara frowned.

'What's going on....are you the Master....?'

'Yes I am. And _you_ , Jara, are going to be very _useful_ in stopping the Time War.'

'Wait....what have you done....why can't I move....'

'Well, you've just proved how resourceful you are at escaping, and I can't have you escaping my ship, now, can I? That would create all _sorts_ of problems! So I set up a containment forcefield to hold you securely when you stepped through the door.'

'You....you _lied!_ You said you weren't lying - you said you'd help me get my freedom!'

'I never _did_ lie, Jara; not once. All I said was that I wouldn't turn you over to the Daleks, and that I'd help you escape them. And you _did_ escape them, didn't you?'

The Master chuckled, and it was the most chilling chuckle Jara thought he'd ever heard.

'Th....th....then do it....kill me now....get it over with.'

The Master was laughing now. 'Oh, I'm not going to kill you. Not yet, anyhow. You're _much_ more useful to me alive.' He turned, pulled a lever on the odd, table-like console in the middle of the room, and walked away down a corridor.

'Wait!' Jara called. 'Wait! What're you gonna _do!?_ _WHAT'RE YOU GONNA DO!?!_ '

The Master laughed again and called back, 'Ah! But don't you wish you knew?'

Jara's mind spun, and he remembered the Master saying he 'knew a lot about truth and lies.' Jara shouted after him once more, but there was no response. Only the glowing column above the console made a sound, humming as its machinery moved slowly up and down inside.


End file.
